Upon a pale horse... (The Mists of Ravenloft)

The Moreau Estates

11

MAY/13

Inside the library the group is afforded a brief rest where to tend their wounds from the fight with the undead.

Melantha examines the rose petals to find that they are mostly dead, but not totally. Kira begins searching through Evan’s research, with several books found by Kessler, and finds information to trapping the souls of the dead.

While Kessler and Melantha search for more useful books, Kira examines the roses and confirms that there is still some life in the dead roses. Interestingly, each of the roses appears to be exactly identical to the others, as if they were the same rose.

Finally locating some useful tomes, Kessler delivers them to Melantha, who discovers a magic ritual that can contact the souls of the dead. Kira’s lack of familiarity with the principles does not allow her to assist Melantha.

Kessler locates one of Evan’s journals that describes his ordeal with Lynn where he successfully captured her soul. Although it was a crude attempt, he was sure that there were better ways to perform such magic.

Melantha failed in her attempts to use the ritual magic, with her body ravaged by necrotic energy. At one point in her attempt she spoke with an unearthly voice, saying: “Your wizard is not here, stop looking for him.” Not wanting to risk further damage to herself, Melantha abandoned the attempt.

Kira took a different approach and attempted to commune with the roses. She felt herself journey to another land where she met the spirit of Sarah, who had given the roses to Evan. Sarah revealed that she had seen Evan die once in the crowd and twice more in “the place where birds fear to travel and death reigns from a throne.” She was still waiting for Evan to join her in the afterlife, but he had not arrived.

Recognizing that description as possibly meaning Castle Avernus, the home of Azalin in Darkon, the group decided to journey there in an attempt to free Evan’s soul. They decided to tell Sophie of their plan in an attempt to get her to leave the Estates.

As they left the library, strangely a long time had passed. Sounds of violence and screams could be heard coming from the main house. The group rushed in, finding the main house being attacked by an angry mob.

Kessler ran into Gerard who joined him holding off the mob at the front doors of the house. Kira and Melantha split up to search the house for any family members, particularly concerned about Evan’s son Lucas and Sophie.

During the long search, Kessler managed to hold the front, only retreating to the grand staircase when he was joined by more guards. Kira and Melantha managed to search the entire house, rescuing a large number of servants and family members. Eventually the group retreated through the woods.

In the end Louis Moreau IV was taken and Valerie Cross was not found. The rest that were sent out of the house were grouped with Fendrick, who miraculously survived, and led off the property into the countryside.